A truly awesome film, spectacular in almost every way.

Rating: 9/10 (13 July 2013)

The year is 2025 and for the 12 years humankind has been fighting Kaiju (monstrous creatures) that have entered the world through a portal in the Pacific Rim ocean floor. To fight these monsters humanity created monsters of their own, the Jaegers (giant mechs controlled by two pilots) but despite the world's best joint efforts the years of increasing attacks have pushed humans to the brink of extinction. Making one last stand the world's remaining Jaeger forces assemble for the ultimate battle of survival.
The screenplay by Guillermo del Toro and Travis Beacham based on the story by Beacham is a little cliché' and clunky but does deliver some highly emotional scenes and dialogue. The story is simple and has some pacing issues but still entertaining and interesting. The movie does a great job of explaining some of Pacific Rim's deep lore and mythology but you can feel there is still so much more to be discovered. It falls into the group I find with most movies that are origin stories or have a deep lore that is crucial to the story (like Inception), because there is so much to explain most of the story is spent doing just that. It in no way makes it a bad film it just left me wanting to know and experience more. Yes I am advocating for a sequel already, which I guess is what the producers and film companies want.
The human cast for the most part are great. Charlie Hunnam as Raleigh Becket though a bit wooden in parts still has shines in pivotal scenes, Rinko Kikuchi as Mako Mori brings an innocence but deep strength to her role making her a great female movie character and Idris Elba as Stacker Pentecost is the stand out bringing a real gravitas to his character's words and actions. Charlie Day and Burn Gorman as Dr. Newton Geiszler and Dr. Hermann Gottlieb, respectively bring the most comic relief as frenemy scientists working to understand the Kaiju. Ron Perlman as Hannibal Chau is an outlandish character bringing a bit of flair and humor to a role that is mostly a cameo. My biggest problem with the film is the casting of Herc and Chuck Hansen. The character's story and personality, are great and added another layer to the film's story. It is the fact that two Australian characters were played by an American and a Englishman (Max Martini and Robert Kazinsky, who are great and do their best) using dodgy accents, it can be distracting. It feels like a missed opportunity to cast two of the many great Australian actors in these roles.
The real stars of course are the Jaegers and Kaiju, the designs and details are fantastic. The Jaegers are hulking mechs that look bad-ass, each countries Jaeger has a distinct style tied to its culture and the inspiration drawn from pop culture robot/mech icons is done nicely without becoming straight up copies. The Kaiju are reminiscent of animals that live in our world that have been twisted by del Toro's famously unique and artistic mind into fearsome but beautiful creatures. Both the Jaegers and Kaiju are sure to become icons themselves and sell a but load of toys.
Though not as heavily as artistic as what has become expected of Guillermo del Toro's directing it is great nonetheless. He has adjusted from his movies which are generally on a smaller scale to capturing the epic size of this movie with almost perfection. The world he has filmed feels realistic and natural with the weather a constant complimentary feature though there are a few times in the battle scenes where the Jaegers and Kaiju feel obscured.
The CGI and VFX created by Industrial Light and Magic and Legacy Effects to bring not only the Jaegers and Kaiju, but the world it self to life is some of the best work I have seen in a movie since Avatar. It really transported me to another place and will be a front runner come Oscar season. It is also worth noting that the 3D is of particularly high quality, I highly recommend seeing it in IMAX 3D is possible.
The score composed by Ramin Djawadi really captures the emotion of the scenes from the sombre lows to the exhilarating highs. Tom Morello brings his rock groove to a few tracks the give them a really heavy feel and gets you pumped and Priscilla Ahn gives a particularly haunting performance on the track Mako.
Pacific Rim is a movie that relies heavily on peoples nostalgia for the movies and TV shows of their childhood like Voltron, Transformers, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ultraman, Power Rangers and so on. These will be the people most excited to see it but I believe that this film really has universal appeal. I myself fit into the above nostalgic category, my girlfriend who doesn't still enjoyed it because of the human aspect of the story and kids who might not pick up on the subtleties of the story will enjoy it because to them it is awesome action with giant Mechs and Monsters, it is a film for all ages.
I went into this film hyped up, expecting it to be a lot of fun and despite a few missteps the whole experience was awesome and I had a great time. 9/10.
P.S - Stay a minute or two into the end credits...